Garrett Graham sits across from Hannah Wells, separated by a few feet of highly charged air. Their eyes remain closed as they – ahem – take matters into their own hands. Together. separately. you get the idea.
This is episode 4 of Off Campus, which released earlier this year. The show is a cheesy mix of every romantic cliché: the cocky-but-secretly-sensitive hockey captain, the awkward music lover, the fake dating, the best friends. What’s refreshing is how little time is wasted having sex. Abs and bosom come into the opening scene. No need to wait until episode 14 to see the long-lasting hand touch. Sex happens again and again, frankly, in beds, bathtubs, in public places. On the reels, the Dean-and-Allie-grinding edit (featuring the show’s second lead) is set to JLo’s On the Floor. It is Prime Video’s third most watched debut season and their most watched debut season ever among women ages 18 to 34.
What just happened? Not long ago, we were in the midst of a severe recession. In 2023, there were thinkers who were saying that dating apps were dying out. That Gen Z was too anxious, too online, or too tired to flirt. In 2024, a UCLA study found that 60% of American teens did not want sex on screen. By the end of the year, steamy views had dropped by 40%.
Looks like we’re over the hump. Off Campus has the baton of Heated Rivalry (2025), in which the chemistry of gay hockey players Ilya and Shane makes social media hot and heated. In Bollywood, the bombshell Sayyaara left the audience collectively holding their breath. Sex is now the issue in youth romance stories. Yes, yes, oh yes!
passion project
We’ve come a long way from Bella and Edward’s innocent banter in the Twilight movies (2008-2012). As of 2020, when Marianne and Connell get together in Normal People, the intimate scenes are 10 minutes long. They are so weird and sensitive that no one will consider them vulgar.
Even the classics are becoming obvious. Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights (2026) wraps both Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi in lust, with BDSM scenes showing one woman being whipped in a horse bridle, another chained to a chimney, crawling on all fours as a willing pet. None of this was in Emily Brontë’s book. Nor was it the pink bedroom that we were told was the exact color of Kathy’s naked skin. In Heated Rivalry, the enemies-to-lovers chemistry between the hockey players is intense, as they turn hotel rooms, supply closets and away games into opportunities for increasingly reckless hook-ups.
“Intimacy on screen only works when it reveals something deep about the character,” says Rangita Pritish Nandy, president and creative director of Pritish Nandy Communications, which produces Four More Shots Please. (2019-2025). The show is based on the lives of four women, and is often referred to as India’s Sex and the City. The characters have affairs, casual hook-ups, bizarre relationships, open marriages, and workplace flirtations. “Intimacy reflects vulnerability, confidence, loneliness, confusion and emotional connection. It always drives the story forward.” The Royals (2025) on Netflix, which features an almost always shirtless Ishaan Khatter and a permanently obese Bhumi Pednekar, explored how intimacy is often associated with control and consequences, says Nandy. Indian shows rarely allow romantic chemistry to flourish so intensely, while also acknowledging what happens once two people are involved.
dry spells
Tanisha Rao, author of You’re Somebody’s Kink, which covers themes of BDSM, queerness, and changing sexual identity, connects some of the anti-sex sentiments of 2020 to the pandemic. “People were either stuck indoors, away from their partners, or they were constantly in close proximity to them. It forced them to ask: Am I living the life I want? Are my sexual needs being met?” Millennials questioned everything from monogamy to dating apps in lockdown.
This was a generation that was thoroughly entertained by Euphoria (2019), which featured blatant, zero foreplay, graphic rape scenes, and women strangled and sexually assaulted. He saw sex in the POV of Game of Thrones (2011–2019), which, in its 10 seasons, actually had three instances of romantic intercourse. They may have read horrific accounts of real women being exploited by powerful men as #MeToo allegations hit every industry.
Gen Z dealt with those worries by simply letting go. “Young people wanted stability and simplicity,” says Rao. “Nobody wanted to be bread-crumbed, haunted or circumstantial. They wanted great chemistry, desperate eye contact and drawn-out desire. The kind of Korean romance that was already visible. The kind of young adult and romantic books that were already available. They offered what Hinge’s Aditya couldn’t: immersive worlds, optimistic arcs, adjustable spice levels. What else could streamers do other than follow it?
dim the lights
Nandy says, “Until now, intimacy has been largely framed from the male perspective. Female desire has often been idealized, judged, or sidelined.” Sex scenes were about power, danger, and bad decisions – female characters (and the women playing them) were rarely depicted honestly. And as Indian streaming shows took more risks with nude and intimate scenes, audiences paid a price for the way they viewed women.
That’s why the new generation of shows and movies seem sexy, but balanced. “Many of these stories are being told through a female perspective with female creators, writers and directors,” says Nikhil Madhok, director and head of originals, Prime Video India. “They showcase desire and heartbreak from the perspective of women with full agency.” Off campus, Jock learns that the path to a woman’s happiness isn’t enthusiastic assertiveness and job-well-done expressions; This is by earning his trust. An entire karaoke song, Cherry Pie, is dedicated to a man pleasing a woman.
In India, like in Hollywood, there are now intimacy coordinators, whose specific job is to choreograph sexual activities and keep the performers comfortable and safe. Aastha Khanna, who worked on The Royals, says the work usually involves finding a “less impactful way to move the plot forward”.
Establishing chemistry takes work, she says. “We created a cycle of intimacy. There’s an erotic attraction, a drunken scene where they let their guard down, then a scene that’s emotionally charged, a scene where they both realize they’re in love.” Most streaming services keep intimate scenes to less than two minutes. “There’s a limit to how much story can be told through them.”
This means that it will take some time for a show like Heated Rivalry to be made in India. “Not just because it depicts queer romance. But because we are still held to taboo intimacy. There is often a reaction from audiences when Indian bodies and private moments are shown on screen. This is linked to our cultural anxieties.”
new turn-on
“The politics of our times inevitably shapes our imaginations,” says Rao. “The success of the heated rivalry can be attributed in part to its celebration of gay love, at a time when gay rights are being taken away in America.” For the rest of us, the fantasy doesn’t necessarily involve capturing the heart of a billionaire, a jock or a hot nemesis. It’s finding someone who listens. Someone who cares if you’re having a good time, too.
India has played with this change. Lust Stories (2018) featured a scene in which Kiara Advani’s character pleasures herself after her husband fails her. But these remain exceptions. “Indian screens are still strangely hesitant when it comes to modern dating,” says Rao. “The dirty realities of contemporary romance are often sanitized before they even reach the screen.” Very often, intimacy – if any – still needs to be justified by marriage. But what if we just let the happy ending be, well, a happy ending?
From HT Brunch, June 27, 2026
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